TEAK: Day 2

Last time on Survivor - Espiritu Santo Pastor Edition:

...WHAT?!? How could you bathe in our drinking water?!...

...I Think we should vote off Ian next. Don't ask me why though...

...Where's Aaron?!? Oh well, he must have been eaten or something. We'll just have to tow his kayak along. No sense in wasting it...

Day 2: Too much Paddling

We all woke up this morning feeling (slightly) refreshed. Sleeping on sand is too weird to be comfortable. I knew it was going to be a long day of paddling (that was the plan), but sixteen miles? that's twice the distance we went yesterday. if we somehow managed to keep a steady 3 mph (which we didn't), that would still be a little over five hours. However, I think we paddled much more than that. Luckily the water was calm, so it was just a matter of putting on arm in the front of the other.
After an hour or two we got to see something pretty cool - some natural caves. I guess storms and whatnot has just battered these big ole' caverns in the side of the cliffs. It was cool because they were "submerged" and you could kayak in and out of them. A few were actually tunnels that went all the way through part of the cliff. I think my favorite cave was one of the tunnel ones, but my second favorite was definitely the one where you could go inside to a shallow area and get out of your kayak. A true blessing.
A couple more hours got us to the halfway point of our journey - a small channel in between isla espiritu santo and isla partida. It was about fifty feet wide and two feet deep ( at least at that tide it was. I know that it gets deep enough for small boats to go through). It was pretty easy to get that far because I knew that would be a bit of a milestone, crossing the half way point and all. But right after we all went through that channel I think it hit that there was still the other half of the trip, and that I had to paddle another eight miles or so that day. Not cool. So everyone was overjoyed when Steve told us we were going to stop at a small beach for lunch. Once we had all eaten (tuna fish... mmmmm....) Joel and Aaron decided to go snorkeling. I opted to sleep. Now, that is a little amazing because I almost never takes naps. So looking back I realize I must have really needed it.
After everyone rested some, we got back in the kayaks for the rest of today's journey. And nothing interesting really happened. Just some really nice scenery and clear, calm water. This is the part where I would clip some pictures up, but since I still don't have any, I won't. But I will have them someday...
So eight miles later we arrived at campsite two; which actually turned out to be a really cool place. We managed to keep a good pace all day, so when we got there the sun was still pretty high. So we staked out our sleeping areas and then grabbed the snorkel gear. I must say, this area really makes me wish I had a nice waterproof digital camera. The life we found there was amazing. I saw more eels there than I'd ever seen in my life. Not to mention all the snapper and reef fish. On top of all that there were lots of cool little aqua-caves you could dive down and poke your head into.

Dog Snapper

Reef Eel

After we go back from snorkeling we dried off and ate supper. A tasty combo of Mac & Cheese and M&Ms. Those are probably the best M&Ms I've ever had. I mean, after snacking on nothing but granola bars for two days eating chocolate felt like waking my taste buds up from a coma. It felt gewd. Well, I would love to next write that we all went to sleep, but I don't think anyone slept much that night. Too many bugs. Even with OFF they kept biting. Oh well, I got to see Orion float across the sky. He moves quite a bit in ten hours.

Here's a little diagram of the island I made. Our camp sites and places we stopped for lunch are marked on there, so I'll do my best to explain it.
Hmm, the dots don't show up to well, but you can still see them.
Red dot: First camp
Yellow Dots: cave areas
Purple Dots: Lunch stops
Blue dot: second camp

It is 16 miles in between the red and blue dots. then it is aprox. eight miles from either the red or the blue dot to the beach we set off from.

to be continued...

Thus ends part two of the saga. Tune in next time for...

Day 3: Volcanoes, Barrel-Roles, and sweet Terra-Firma

Still no Teak Photos... But I digress.

Well, the fine man who took a majority of the pictures in the previously mentioned TEAK trip happens to be on vacation... So I will get those up as soon as I can. In the meantime I can relate to you the grueling three days that was TEAK through a pseudo-fictional journal that I'm just now making up...

Day 1 - Take-off
From the start there were nine of us to set out on this quest. A wizard (Steve), Two men (Nate & Connor), four hobbits (Me & Joel & Aaron & Connor), an elf (David), and a dwarf (Pete of course). At first we were fortunate enough to ride in great carriages pulled quickly by many horses (several hundred actually). But shortly we ran out of land for the horses to run on, and so we stopped to unload the boats and provisions. We hobbits had thought ahead and ran swiftly to claim the lighter, more comfortable crafts as there own. there were four total - Steve had his own boat, a fine craft it was, and there were three others of similar, but less magnificent build. Hobbits Ian & Joel were the fastest, claiming two Swift boats (actually, that's what they were named. Seda (brand) Swift (model)). Hobbit Aaron also got to one, but Steve had other plans for him... He reassigned Hobbit Aaron to an even lighter boat for reasons of his own. Hobbit Aaron was not pleased. The elf (no doubt through some elvish magic) also acquired a Seda boat. The rest were assigned more cumbersome, less comfortable ships to paddle.

And so we began our journey. We had several leagues to travel that day (well, two tops), so we paddled at a normal, relaxed pace. After a few hours we finally reached land; and a glorious site it was. His legs wobbly from atrophy, all dwarf-Pete could do was drift on his back in the sea. The rest of us, having less girth to heft, easily climbed out of our kayaks and pulled them onto shore. At this point we realize that elf-David had already proven his worth - he caught lunch on the run! We feasted on obscenely fresh fish, a large cabrilla and two decent snapper. It was delicious. After lunch, the company spread out a little. The hobbits all jumped in the water for a snorkel (it was great), and everyone else just rested some(except for elf-David, who tried to work more magic with his elvish pole-rod. Alas, it was in vain). Once we were all well rested, The wizard Steve gave the order to get back in the boat and continue on to the camp-site for that night.
The rest of the day way uneventful - we set up camp, cooked dinner, and lounged. After that we were ready to see the inside of out eyelids for at least eight hours or so. And we did. And it was good.

to be continued...

That's right, I'm tired of writing for tonight. Specifically making vague Lord of the Rings similes. Hopefully I'll be in the mood (is the state of boredom a mood?) tomorrow.

Till then,

~Ian R.

TEAK: Isla Espiritu Santo

Well, I haven't posted in awhile because I haven't been in the water in awhile! I've had an ear infection for the past... week and a half I think, and that has kept me high and dry. But, even though the doctor isn't to happy about it, this week I am going on a three day retreat to Isla Espiritu Santo.

Yes.

I'm bringing a water-proof camera, so I'll try to get some good pictures.

On a slightly un-related note, a friend of mine is a shipwright and had some spare teak laying around, so he gave me a beautiful piece to craft my speargun out of. I'll have some pictures of that up later as well.

Here's a few teasers to.... well to tease you.

P.s. oh yeah, I almost forgot. TEAK is an acronym derived from TEAM (or, "The Evangelical Alliance Mission) which stands for "The Evangelical Alliance Kyakers (or something like that. Its my best guess at least). Its just a tradition of sorts where a bunch of missionary types in the baja region gather to kyak around Isla Espiritu Santo.

Overnight on a sailboat: A fun dud

Bahia Balandra

Well, I'm back from my first overnight stay on a boat. It could have gone worse I guess. But just barely. Sunday was fine; we got to the boat, motored out to Balandra Bay, and then snorkeled a couple times in the afternoon and at dusk. So then we moved from anchor point #1 over to #2. But then the wind just would not die down, so we moved back from anchor point #2 over to anchor point #1 at around eight or nine o'clock. Then we all tossed around for the next two hours or so and no one got any sleep. So then at around eleven Allen (the captain) decided that conditions were miserable and pulled anchor to head back home. So we motored back to the bay of La Paz and slept peacefully for the rest of the night.

So I pretty much think of this trip as a bit of a dud. It was really fun to stay on the boat all day, but we didn't catch any fish, we didn't get to do any night-snorkeling, and we didn't get to spend the night (or the whole night) at Balandra. Actually, the worst part about that is that we were supposed to go spend the night at the Island (Espiritu Santo), but lately every trip to that slab of rock has failed. I now believe it to be cursed to all organized events.
The one good thing that came from all this is that I found out that I really like being on boats; even overnight (that was the one thing I wasn't sure I would like). The swaying kept me awake sometimes, but I could definitely get used to it.
Oh yeah, did I mention we didn't catch any fish? Not spearfishing, not trolling, not casting... It was sad...

~Ian